Baby Sign language
Babies exposed to sign language babble with their hands
Baby sign language works by teaching basic concepts like eat, milk, bathroom, all done and more. Learn Signs
Their vocal cords aren't developed yet, edit, but they know what they want to say, and they know what they need. Parents can teach their infants starting at about six months associating things and actions, with signs.
Experts say the best way to teach your kids sign language is to have all the key people in their life use the language - like grandparents and babysitters. The benefits last long after the babies, are no longer babies.
Sign
|
Description
|
Think of
|
Milk
|
open and close one or both fists | milking a cow |
Eat
|
bring "and" hand to mouth and tap lips | bringing food to mouth |
Drink
|
bring "c" hand to mouth in a short arc | bringing cup to mouth |
More
|
tap both "and" hands together | bringing something together with something else |
Fan
|
twirl index finger in a circle | rotating fan blades |
Dog
|
1. Pat thigh 2. Pat thigh, snap fingers |
traditionally calling a dog |
Cat
|
Trace "whiskers" on one or both sides of your mouth | cat whiskers |
Daddy
|
tap "5" hand to your temple a few times | the temple area signifies male signs |
Mommy
|
tap "5" hand to your chin a few times | the chin area signifies female signs |
Babies
are
watching your language
ALTHOUGH they can only babble, babies seem to have a keen eye for speech: they can distinguish between
different languages simply by reading your lips.
Whitney Weikum and colleagues from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, showed babies
videos of talking adults, with the sound turned off. Babies soon got bored of the silent clips, but they
watched with renewed interest when speakers switched from English to French (Science, vol 316, p
1159).
This ability lasted only until the age of about 8 months - unless the babies came from bilingual households,
when it continued. This suggests that visual cues may help babies avoid mixing up different languages, says
Weikum. "It supports the idea that infants come prepared to learn multiple languages and are thus
equipped to discriminate them auditorily and visually," she says.
Although there is no direct evidence that visual cues help children to learn a language, "it does
suggest
that in language learning, the brain may not be tied to speech per se", says Laura-Ann Petitto, a
language development researcher at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She previously showed that
deaf babies use visual cues to learn sign language, but "never did we dream that young hearing babies
acquiring spoken languages also use visual cues in this stunning way".